Verdict No compulsory psychiatric assessment in your own home

Federal Constitutional Court emphasizes inviolability of the apartment
Mentally ill people do not have to tolerate the assessment in their own apartment because of a possible placement in a psychiatric facility. A corresponding court order violates the fundamental right to inviolability of the apartment, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled in a decision published on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 (Ref .: 2 BvR 253/18).

In the specific case it concerned a possible necessary accommodation of a mentally ill woman. The Soltau district court ordered an expert to do this and at the same time ordered that he should interview and investigate the woman in her own apartment. If the mentally ill refuse, the apartment may also be entered violently.

medicine, age, health care and people concept - senior woman patient lying in bed at hospital ward

The procedural nurse, who was also appointed in the placement procedure and exercised the rights of the woman, considered this procedure unlawful. She applied to the Federal Constitutional Court for a preliminary injunction to overturn the decision of the local court.

In its decision of 16 March 2018, the Constitutional Court judges of the procedural lawyer were now right. For if the investigation of the woman takes place against her will in her own apartment, would violate the fundamental right to inviolability of the apartment. Everyone has the right to be left alone in his living quarters.

The Verfahrespflegerin could also submit constitutional complaint. To be sure, this is only possible if "own rights are affected in their own name". However, in the case of "immediate imminent coercive measures", the procedure nurse may exceptionally also file a constitutional complaint in the accommodation procedure.

Here, the district court has misunderstood the fundamental right to inviolability of the apartment, decided the Federal Constitutional Court. For the public violence is thus accompanied by a fundamental prohibition of intrusion into the apartment. Only if a "common danger or danger to life for single persons" should be averted with the penetration into the flat, this measure is permissible. Such a danger did not exist here.

According to the law, a court may order the demonstration of a mentally ill patient against his will. The apartment may then be entered, but only to bring the person concerned to the investigation. However, there is no legal basis for him to be heard and investigated in his own apartment against his will, the Federal Constitutional Court emphasized. fle